Abstract
Xu-Jing(徐競) an official of the Song(宋), a medieval Kingdom of China, wrote a book titled $\ll$Koryo Tu Jing(高麗圖經)$\gg$ which explains his travel to the Koryo as a member of diplomatic mission in 1123. $\ll$Koryo Tu Jing$\gg$ is the record of his personal experience in Koryo with many explanatory illustrations and especially contains 5 months' voyage record of his diplomatic fleet. His fleet set sail at a port located in the Ding Hai Xian(定海縣), Ming Zhou(明州) via a few islands of Koryo [Hyup Kye San(俠界山) , the Kun San Do(群山島) , the Ja Yon Do(紫燕島) , the Keup Su Mun(急水門) in Kang Hwa Gun(江華郡) and the Hap Gul(蛤窟) ] and finally arrived the Port Ye Song Hang(禮成港) . According to the Xu-Jing's record his fleet sailed the sea with the help of the favorable seaward winds and tides as the usual way of ancient sailing. The Xu- Jing's Fleet sailed the sea between the Mei Cen(梅岑), Ming Zhou(明州) of China and the Hyup Kye San(俠界山) of Koryo from about 5:00 a.m., May 24th(of the lunar calendar) to about 5:00 p.m., June 2nd. At this section, the average speed of the seaward winds was 19.45km/h and the average speed of the fleet which sailed only by the power of the winds was 6.29km/h. This means that 32.3% of the favorable seaward winds' speed was equal to the speed of the ancient fleet which sailed only by the power of the favorable seaward winds. The fleet sailed the sea between the Ja Yon Do(紫燕島) and the Keup Su Mun(急水門) from about 9:00 a.m., June 10th to about 1:00 p.m., the same day. At this section the fleet sailed by the power of tides in addition to the favorable seaward winds without oaring. The average speed of the winds was not different from that of former section and the average speed of the tides was 1.937km/h. And at this section the average speed of the fleet increased by 0.41km/h than that of the former section. This means that 21.1% of the speed of the tides was equal to the increased speed of the ancient fleet by virtue of the tides. The fleet sailed the sea between Keup Su Mun(急水門) and the Hap Gul(蛤窟) from about 1:00 p.m., June 10th to about 3:00 p.m., the same day. At this section, there were no seaward winds and the fleet sailed only by the powers of tides and oaring. And at this section, the tide increased the average speed of the fleet by 0.3114km/h and the fleet could sail at the speed of 4.3km/h. So we can conclude that the average speed of ancient fleet without any influences of the seaward winds and tides was 3.98 km/h. We can make use of the various sailing speeds of ancient fleets when judging their maritime activities. If we make use of the various sailing speeds of the ancient fleets as calculated in this article, we will be able to get various important informations about the certain ancient fleet's maritime maneuver. For example, we can infer the sailing routs of a certain fleet and the time when the fleet passed a certain spot by making use of the various sailing speeds of the ancient fleet. In this article I did not take account of the shapes of ships that consist of the ancient fleets and the sizes of the various ships and fleets. It was because that such factors would not change the foresaid conclusions seriously.